Julius Thomas one of 10 NFL players who could have been NBA draft picks

With the 2014 NBA Draft on Thursday, some of the nation's most gifted young athletes took the first step in becoming a professional athlete.

But what about those athletes that could be pro in more than one sport? We're not comparing any of these guys to Deion Sanders or Bo Jackson at all, but in a league where arguably the top pro athletes play, the NFL, many of them would take well to the hardwood.

The following 10 players are worth pondering. For the first three, actual potential was seen by none other than Ryan Blake, the NBA's senior director of scouting operations, who followed in the footsteps of his late father, legendary scout Marty Blake.

1. TE Antonio Gates, Chargers - "He played point guard and power forward. He knew exactly how to play,'' Blake said of Gates' career at Kent State (18.1 points, 7.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists a game from 2001-03). "He was smart with and without the ball. A lot of NBA teams were enamored of him.''

The story that generally is told is that Gates was too much of a tweener at 6-4, and that's why he took a chance at football despite never playing in college. Actually, Blake said, Gates was scheduled to play at the crucial Portsmouth Invitational postseason tournament, but hurt his ankle and, thus, his NBA prospects. He did get signed after the '03 draft by the Chargers, though, and 719 catches and eight Pro Bowls later, he inherits Tony Gonzalez's mantle as the NFL's best basketball player.

2. DE Julius Peppers, Packers - The 6-7 Peppers played both sports for two years at North Carolina and was a key rotation player for the 2000 Final Four team that featured Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison. He stuck to football as a senior in 2001.

"He was a very good player,'' Blake said. "He wasn't the offensive player Gates was, but he set screens, he played physical defense, he went to the boards, he could make an open shot. And he was very coachable. I was disappointed that he quit basketball."

The Panthers, Bears and Packers have not been disappointed the last 12 years, not with his 119 career sacks.

3. TE Jimmy Graham, Saints - Graham didn't play football at Miami until his final season in 2009 (17 catches, but five were for touchdowns). He played basketball for four years, mostly as a backup, blocked 104 shots in his career and played in the 2008 NCAA tournament.

"He was a good athlete,'' Blake said. "He was 6-8, a big kid, long, sort of that rebound-putback-shotblocker.'' Seeing him converted to a tight end in football didn't surprise him. Graham, of course, has been to the Pro Bowl twice in his first four seasons (and is now fighting to be paid like more than a tight end).

4. TE Julius Thomas, Broncos - As a 6-5 power forward, Thomas helped Portland State to its first two NCAA tournament berths, in 2008 and '09. He shot 66.3 percent from the floor for his career, and scored the basket that won the conference tournament title in '09.

Not only did he not play football in college until 2010, when he was out of basketball eligibility and was a semester short of graduating, he had not played since ninth grade, when his mother made him quit the sport out of safety concerns. Portland State football coach Nigel Burton talked Thomas into walking on.

5. WR Vincent Jackson, Bucs - The 6-6 Jackson did the two-sport dance in his sophomore and junior years, 2002-04, at Division I-AA (now FCS) Northern Colorado. Both times he joined the team after football season was over, and he averaged 12.3 points and 4.8 rebounds in his two seasons, leading the team in scoring in his final season of basketball.

He went back to football full-time as a senior and became a second-round draft pick by the Chargers in 2005. He's had five 1,000-yard receiving seasons in his nine years in the NFL.

6. WR Bruce Ellington, 49ers - Ellington balanced football and basketball for three years at South Carolina, and actually started a fourth season last year, but gave it up in January to concentrate on trying to make the NFL. He did, going to the 49ers in the sixth round after leading the Gamecocks in catches, yards and touchdowns his final year.

His rationale was that his future seemed brighter in football than basketball, even at 5-foot-9. He was no slouch on the court, though – he averaged 12.8 points, 3.2 assists and 3.3 rebounds as a freshman, his best statistical season.

7. CB Demetri Goodson, Packers - When the 6-foot Goodson chose Gonzaga coming out of high school, it was because he figured football was out of his system (the school doesn't have a football program). He started at point guard for Gonzaga as a sophomore and junior and led the Bulldogs to the Sweet 16 in 2009.

Later, however, Goodson decided he wanted to play football again, and transferred to Baylor. He lost nearly two full seasons to injury, then sparkled as a cornerback last season and was drafted in the sixth round by Green Bay.

8. TE Martellus Bennett, Bears - Bennett, the self-titled "Black Unicorn," went to Texas A&M primarily to play basketball—and even then it wasn't necessarily his first option. After his senior year of high school in the suburbs of Houston, he applied to enter the 2005 NBA draft, and tried for at least one team, the then-Seattle SuperSonics. He pulled out of the draft when scouts pegged him as a second-round pick, and went on to college.

His best, and main, sport at Texas A&M was football – he was second-team all-Big 12 as a sophomore and headed to the NFL after his junior year. But he played basketball as well in his first two seasons, including 26 games as a freshman.

9. LB Connor Barwin, Eagles - Barwin managed to be something of a three-way player at Cincinnati—he started out as a defensive end, was moved to tight end, then back to defense, excelling each time and helping the Bearcats (under future Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly) turn the program around.

He also managed to squeeze in basketball his first two years, under two different coaches. That program was also a wreck at the time, after Bob Huggins' controversial exit, and replacement Andy Kennedy recruited him to walk on when the roster was depleted. He came back and played again as a sophomore, under Mick Cronin. He stuck to football after that, moved on to the NFL, got 11 ½ sacks in 2011 for the Texans, and is now an Eagle.

10. TE Erik Swoope, Colts - When Blake was told that Swoope was now in the NFL, Blake, the NBA scouting director, said, mildly shocked, "He is?" The 6-5 forward had never played organized football before the Colts signed him as an undrafted free agent—yet coaches gushed over his potential after OTAs and minicamps.

Swoope mostly came off the bench in his four years in Miami and averaged 2.6 points and 1.7 rebounds in his career. But he did start late in the 2012-13 season for the Hurricanes in their run to their first-ever ACC tournament title and eventually to the NCAA Sweet 16.